Colts quarterback Andrew Luck smiles as he runs up the tunnel following the team's dramatic 35-33 win over the Lions on Sunday. / Paul Sancya, AP

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

INDIANAPOLIS -- The first shot Bruce Arians took Sunday was one that knocked him off of his feet, a body blow from Detroit Lions safety Don Carey during a return of an interception thrown by quarterback Andrew Luck.

The second was a blow to the head during the frantic postgame celebration after Luck's no-time-left, 14-yard touchdown pass to Donnie Avery that capped a comeback from a 12-point deficit and gave the Indianapolis Colts, the NFL's surprise team, a 35-33 victory against the Lions. This hit was directly on the ChuckStrong pin on Arians' hat - worn to honor ailing head coach Chuck Pagano - and the pin pierced Arians' scalp, which began to bleed.

This was around the time his headset cord got caught on his ankle, leading to an awkward few moments as he tried to join the postgame celebration. No style points there. That wasn't the way it was drawn up.

Then again, this Colts season, which at 8-4 keeps tracking toward the postseason, hasn't followed any kind of blueprint. There isn't one after Pagano had to take medical leave early in the season to commence a battle with leukemia, leaving Arians, a longtime NFL assistant, to take over.

"I can't say enough about this whole situation, because there's no script," Arians said. "Our guys are doing the best they can. They showed the true fight that our coach has and what he's gone through."

Arians has handled the job the only way he knows how, with a blunt style of communication and leadership that began in the spring as offensive coordinator. The guy who relishes busting his players' chops surely will be needled for Sunday's moments of clumsiness and calamity.

But who cares? On a day when the NFL needed a smile and a feel-good story, Arians once again supplied it.

Two coaches, one voice

The Colts meeting room was silent the morning of Oct.1 when owner Jim Irsay and general manager Ryan Grigson walked in. The players knew something was wrong.

After announcing Pagano was ill and that Arians would take over as the interim head coach, Irsay turned it over to Arians. He never had given such a speech and hadn't addressed a whole team since he was Temple's head coach from 1983 to 1988, but Arians delivered a short, poignant talk that introduced the symbol of Pagano's eventual return.

"I don't know why, but I asked Mr. Irsay to leave the light on in his office and never turn it off until (Pagano) comes back as a sign there's a fight going on," Arians said. "That light has never been off. Basically, I told them our job was to extend the season until he could come back and coach."

Since then, the light switch has been secured with a piece of clear plastic and a note with the words "Do Not Turn Off!" attached below.

Arians has struck a balance between doing things his way while also allowing Pagano's presence to be felt. He changed the post-practice and postgame chant from "Trust," "Loyalty" or "Respect" to "One, two, three, Chuck," and he tries to bring up Pagano at least once a day.

"This is a very difficult situation to manage from an owner's standpoint, because you can't have two head coaches," Irsay said. "Chuck and I have had long conversations about this and, as he gets better, he's champing at the bit to do more and more. But the players have to listen to one voice. That's Bruce right now."

Arians says he'll gladly step aside when Pagano returns, perhaps as soon as the Dec.23 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Pagano has remained plugged in via practice and game tape sent to his iPad and audio recordings of the coaches meetings. He has made some pointers for the defensive coaches but has let Arians run the offense.

"I knew a long time ago that Bruce was a great football coach and an even better person," Pagano said in an e-mail to USA TODAY Sports. "I feel very lucky that he was available back in January, and I will never be able to repay Bruce or the entire staff for the job they have done."

Coaching both sides

One day in training camp, Arians walked onto the field with knee-high black socks and black shoes. It was a look that baffled players. "We're in sorrow," Arians replied, "for all the DBs we killed (in practice) yesterday."

Smack talk - one of the best ways to get through the rigors of camp. And for Arians, it was a great way to win over players he didn't realize he eventually would be coaching.

Trading jabs with defenders is something Arians has done for a while, since his days with the Cleveland Browns a decade ago when he'd bet players a dollar over which side would win that day's two-minute drill. Some days he'd ratchet it up to five bucks, and the players would accept, not knowing Arians was the one in charge of the schedule. Those days, the offense was driving for a field goal, not a touchdown.

Easy money.

With the Colts, it's been colorful barbs back and forth, with Grigson saying the exchanges between Arians and backup safety Joe Lefeged would "triple the ratings" if the Colts were on HBO's Hard Knocks.

"I got an interception," Lefeged said, relaying one of the few printable stories, "and he said his daughter could've made that pick."

Once Arians became coach of the entire team, things changed. "I remember one time talking trash to him and he just let it slide, like, 'Good job, good play,'" Lefeged said. "I didn't really expect it."

Added Luck, "First day, you realize, 'What the hell? B.A. is cheering for (the defense)? Come on, that's not right! The world is wrong!'"

Hey, Arians has to be a bit more political. Defensive end Dwight Freeney, who already had a relationship with Arians because they play golf together, says Arians probably had to learn the names of some defensive players. Arians nodded in agreement with a grin.

But if there were any doubt Arians could lead this team in Pagano's absence, it was gone after a Week5 comeback from a 21-3 halftime deficit to beat the Green Bay Packers in Arians' first game in charge.

This guy is an NFL head coach, even if nobody had given him the chance to this point - or will after this season is over.

Decades worth of insight

In the fourth quarter of the Colts' 59-24 blowout loss to the New England Patriots last month, Arians walked over to a frustrated Luck, who had slammed his helmet down on the sideline after his third interception.

"Last time I was up here with a guy in your position, it was worse than this," Arians, the Colts' quarterbacks coach when Peyton Manning bombed in his first trip to Foxboro in 1998, told Luck. "Get back out there, see what you can learn the rest of this game. Keep slingin' it, and hopefully we'll be back here in a few weeks."

Arians had the wisdom of nearly four decades of experience to know when to give Luck a mental lift. He also apparently knows when to knock him down a peg, such as last week at practice when he told Luck he didn't want to see any more "moon balls" - high, floating passes that easily can be intercepted.

"He'll tell stories of older guys he's coached or gone against, like coaching against Dick Jauron in '90-whatever ... ," Luck joked, noting the point at which he dozed off. "And it's not taboo to talk about other quarterbacks, but he doesn't come in and say you have to do it this way because Ben (Roethlisberger) or Peyton did it this way."

Said Arians, a quarterback at Virginia Tech from 1972 to 1974, "Having gone through all of this with (Tim) Couch, Roethlisberger and Peyton, I just think he likes to hear they struggled too."

Knowing how to handle the psyche of a player is a big part of being a head coach. Arians has done that for Luck. He's done it for the defense. Heck, he's done it for an entire team, organization and community.

"As a head coach at Temple, I had kids' parents die and all kind of tragedies and stuff. But this situation, it was just meant to be," he said.

And if this is it? If he gives this team back to Pagano and is never a head coach again?

"I did it under harder circumstances than anybody else, so I'm really cool with it," he said. "I proved it to myself. I've enjoyed it. I'd be lying if I said I didn't, because I never thought I'd get the opportunity. I have never felt more needed than I have in the last two months as a coach."